BBC to Project the UK General Election Results on to Big Ben Tower

The BBC recently announced [bbc.co.uk] that the results of the UK general election 2010 are to be projected on to St Stephen's Tower, world-famous as the clock tower that houses Big Ben.

The idea behind projecting the results in this way is to provide a clear and simple source of information and to create an "arresting" image. The results projection, which will be removed after dawn on 7 May, will feature a "winning line", representing the 326 seats that any party will need to win to be sure of an outright victory. The idea was approved by the parliamentary authorities, responsible for the management of its buildings and the BBC is said to be "delighted" with the initiative.

Via Mara News and Datanemics.

Note: the image on the left appeared at the BBC website. No clue why the Photoshop guy could not update the "2005" reference with a more appropriate year label. The other image originates from Greenpeace. I therefore hope the security has the perimeter around the tower covered for any potential data "skewing" from outside.

What do you think? Is it a useful way to display newsworthy information?

It looks like a rendering, but it’s not: Lichtfront’s augmented light sculpture

Installation artists and visual designers Grosse8/Lichtfront developed the above "Augmented Sculpture," working in both 3-D and time-based media, presented to a public audience for the first time in January at the Interior Design Week Cologne. The documentation of the installation is now online, and though we know it's not an animated rendering or a Processing script, our brains aren't quite convinced.

The sculpture comprises of two parts: a 2.5m tall wooden sculpture that acts as a screen for a precisely registered 360° projection system. Lichtfront elaborates in the comment section of YouTube:

We did it with 4 projectors, placed around the object. The graphics were done in AfterEffects. We worked in a composition that was [cut] into the 4 output movies at the end. Then we played the 4 videos on 2 computer, synchronised by a vvvv patch.

Hylozoic Ground: Canada sends an artificial forest to Venice

Hylozoic Ground, the award-winning installation from Philip Beesley Architect, Inc., has been chosen to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale of Architecture this coming Fall. The installation is immersive and responsive, embedded with a network of Arduino microcontrollers, sensors and actuators. The acrylic lattice, covered with "interactive mechanical fronds, filters and whiskers," reacts to the movement of the occupants in the space, suggesting a more empathic relationship between architecture and people.

We did a little research on the title: Hylozoism is a philosophical idea that life is inseparable from matter, as coined by Ralph Cudworth in 1678. This is a fitting title, very representative of the qualities of the project. As Eric Haldenby, Director Waterloo Architecture Cambridge, puts it:

"This wonderful piece refreshes, or, even, restores the fundamental relationship between the built and natural environments. The work holds out the promise that there will one day be an architecture this deep, vivid and alive."

The core project team includes architect Philip Beesley, Andrew Hunter, an independent artist, writer and curator, and Dr. Rob Gorbet, Associate Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering at the University of Waterloo, who sent us this tip in the first place.

To learn more about the sculpture or to join the team supporting the Venice exhibition, visit www.hylozoicground.com.

A few more after the jump.

Augmented (hyper)Reality

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Words from Thomas Edison

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

The Newspaper Tablet Concepts – (by @baekdal)

The newspaper industry is falling over themselves in the fight to come up with a ever more impressive newspaper tablet. The problem is that they miss the point completely (as I wrote about in "The Future of News, Tablets, and Business Models").

The future of news is not a fancy interactive versions of each newspaper. It's a more engaging and information friendly personal news aggregator. Or a personal, augmented, social RSS reader on steroids. One that is about news and not newspapers.

We are all waiting for the mythical Apple tablet, but I actually think that you should be watching Amazon instead. All they need to do is to create a personal RSS reader, for the Kindle, and combine that with a little layout magic.

But all these concepts are really pretty. Just take a look below:

Mag+

The Mag+ concept is created by Berg, for Bonnier Magazines. Looks good, except that they are only using a very small part of the screen for the actual text. It's not very scalable in that format.

Sports Illustrated tablet

Again, very pretty - but too focused on just a single news source. This would not work with news for many different sources. The layout controls the content, not the other way around.

Wired Tablet

Not as pretty as the other ones. mainly because it is merely the print layout on a tablet. They are not using the power of the screen or touch. And they apparently asked the CEO's 12 year old nephew to play some music...

Microsoft "Courier" tablet

Not exactly a newspaper tablet, but Microsoft's concept comes much closer to what the future of tablet will really be like.

The Sun Tablet

Of course, this article wouldn't be complete without the Sun tablet... :)

SOY on FWA

My vote went to: http://soytuaire.labuat.com/

Sustainable Minds: Web-based Life Cycle Assessment Software

Sustainable Minds has just released the first version of their web-based, on-demand life cycle assessment software. Based on the Okala Design Guide 2009, this comprehensive SaaS software encourages the design of greener products by providing information at the beginning of the design process about the potential impacts of material choices on the environment and human health.

Features include optimization for electro-mechanical products; assessment for any portion of the product (whole or subassembly); streamlined use with CAD and PLM systems; 450+ impact factors with CO² equivalent values; and much, much more.

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You can watch the video demo or look through the comprehensive information available on their website. The cost is $700 for a single user, annual subscription, and a 30-day free trial is available as well.

10/GUI: The Video

Myths and realities about women and mobile phones

Mobile phones have been a boon to developing countries and to social development. Access to mobiles may indeed allow for better medical information, change the way farmers grow and sell crops, expand the way families interact, influence the way governments treat their citizens, and improve the way students learn in schools. But, asks MobileActive in its ongoing series on Mobile Myths and Realities: Deconstructing Mobile, what is the real story behind these benefits? And who really gains from them? In her contribution to the series, Anne-Ryan Heatwole looks at “how women are or are not benefitting from the ubiquity of mobile telephony”. “Mobile technology has the ability to change the way we communicate, but its effects are not evenly distributed. In societies that are divided by social and gender roles, women, especially rural women, are often left out. Gender disparity in society is often echoed in mobile usage; while technology allows some women greater social and economic freedom, in other cases, it simply upholds previously held social constructs. In the areas of social interactions, education, and economics, mobile phones have a distinctly gendered impact on its users. An examination of research and case studies that focus on women and mobile technology reveals that although access to mobile telephones has many benefits for female users, it not a solution to female poverty or gender inequality.” Read full story